


Love Don't Die

by Madam_Red



Category: Continuum (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-10 22:45:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1165473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madam_Red/pseuds/Madam_Red
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I've lost count of the sunsets that have dawned between you and the beginning, but I will remember every sunrise from you to the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Don't Die

**Author's Note:**

> This fan fiction was inspired by the song "Love Don't Dye" by The Fray. Listen to it here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNrxTsl36Gk

It’s one of those rare times that her guard is down, and, Alec can tell by the silence that dawns between her voice and his last response that something has grabbed her attention. He looks away from the project he's working on, soldering gun still hissing in his hovering fingers. Those blue eyes fall to his monitor display, and the array of information whirling about-- but one monitor remains devoted to her system. To her.

She's staring at empty air, and he can tell from the elevations in respiratory effort that something is wrong. He sets aside the utensil (thankfully remembering to turn it off first), and quickly plops himself into the chair in front of her monitor. As if being closer to it will make him feel closer to her. 

"Kiera?" He ventures slowly, fingers flying over the keys as he attempts to connect with more of her interface. Her silence is disturbing. She's only quiet for several reasons. Someone was listening she didn't trust-- or she didn't trust herself to speak. Their topic had been, however, been something related to her current case. He didn't see where her silence had come from. So he said her name again, a little louder, and even as she responds he's already patched himself into her auditory receptors.

Music. Faintly-- but he realizes now she's staring at the speaker mounted on Betty's laptop. The Asian is across the room, and bantering with Carlos over something-- but the music seems to draw her attention across an office of background nose. How she's even noticed the song, he doesn't know.

He almost misses the way her fingers tighten around the pen in her hand, and the way her breath shudders out in a raged breath that leaves him swallowing. Oh. No. He didn't like when she did this. Teeth sunk into his bottom lip as he watched her stomp out of the office-- music tickling at the back of her memory. He watches as she climbs the stair case in a run, breathless by the time she throws open the door at the top of the shaft. Cool evening air assaults her lungs, and she gulps it down like its salvation. 

He hovers in the background, worried, fretting to himself as her vision blurs-- and he realizes she's crying. The realization stuns him. More so because she's forgotten completely that he's watching. He's use to the warrior. The CPS officer. Not this. A careful Alec pulls up the audio file of the song, and plays it for himself. Its a catchy tune. Nice guitar riffs-- the singer has a nice charming voice. Baritone. Smooth--- and then the lyrics hit him as the base drops.

_"A thousand years go by, but love don't die."_

The words smack him like a ton of bricks-- as if he's sympathetic to her very emotions. He takes in a slow breath and contemplates closing the connection to give his friend some badly needed privacy. But the song keeps playing in the darkness of his laboratory, and he feels almost frozen to hear the following lyrics. To see how badly its affected her. He almost wishes he hadn't.

_"No matter where we go_  
Or even if we don't  
And even if they try  
They'll never take my body from your side  
Love don't die" 

Alec hates himself-- he hates himself so much he doesn't even have the words to place to it. He's done this-- not him, per say, but a version of him. An older version of him that surely knows how important Kiera is to him-- that part of him does this. That part of him has caused Kiera this kind of pain. He's sent her back to the past. Away from her friends. Away from her family. Away from her son. He's done this. Him. All for alternative reasons.

He tastes a coppery substance after a second, and realizes, it’s the taste of his own blood from where his teeth have crushed his own lip. He draws back with a quiet hiss, covering his own mouth and swearing mentally to himself as he swallows the blood and winces at its taste. Somewhere in the corner of his vision, he nearly misses the whirl of data that has finished analyzing an algorithm he's set it to run.

A simple txt file sits before him-- simple in the fact its deeply encrypted and requesting a password from her bluntly. He pauses, fingers hovering as he eyes the flashing cursor before him. What had triggered this? He hadn't expected the analysis to finish for another four hours. 

His eyes glance to the song playing in the background, and he swallows. He wouldn't. Would he? He would. His fingers fly over the keys, entering "lovedontdie". He thinks himself foolish as he hovers, uncertain, before pressing enter.

The file opens, and the familiar logo of his future company swirls into effect on the screen. He swallows, and this time it isn’t the blood. 

He stares at the text, as if expecting it to come to life and slap him. He can see who the author of it is. His name stares back at him passively-- taunting him with the fact he hasn't moved yet. 

A glance is given quickly to her coordinates, and he throws his laptop and several other trinkets into a bag before he vanishes up the stairs; taking them two at a time. The chair spins behind him in a testimony to his speed.

In retrospect, he doesn’t know these streets as well as he hopes to. He's the geek. He's the hacker. He isn't the warrior-- he's the inventor. He's the brains-- but all that doesn’t mean anything in the few moments it takes him to cross the city. 

His worn sneakers slam against the concrete, heart in his throat as he darts across a busy intersection-- an collection of horns and screeching tires in his wake. It isn't until he's standing in front of the police station staring up at the badge on the front that he realizes he hasn't planned this entirely well enough. Well. Future him hasn't. Or maybe future him anticipates that he'll be able to solve this on his own.

His future self has more faith in him then he does.

Alec takes a deep breath, squares his shoulders and hatefully climbs the steps and vanishes into the precinct.

It's incredibly easy to get past the front desk, and lead to a detectives desk. All he has to mention is liber8 and a vague description of one of its key's players. Easy enough. He knows their faces by memory now.

the officer asks him to sit, and wait for the detective to return-- they need him to make a formal statement. He waits only briefly, before asking where the washrooms are. 

A minute later he's taken the exit door beside the washrooms three flights upwards-- and is blessing several deities (that he doesn’t really believe in) that he's spent his entire life working on a farm, and that physical labour isn't that taxing to him. He finds the door Keira busted through still swinging on it latch when he finishes clamoring up the stairs, and the gravel on the roof crunches under his sneakers as he comes to a halt.

He isn't sure what's worse. The fact her guard is down enough not to notice him at first-- or the fact she's still on her knees. She isn't crying now-- that phase seems to have passed. But instead there is an eerie emptiness to her gaze. Its almost lifeless. It doesn’t take him long to deiced her gaze is what scares him most.

He drops his bag to the gravel, gently, and advances until he can set slender fingers lightly on her hunched shoulders. It isn't the first time he's taken her by surprise-- he doubts it will be the last. But the way she jerks back from is almost wild. Its military. And for a breather he finds that dangerous look sends his heart stuttering to a stop.

Recognition flashes in her gaze, and he's spared some doubtfully horrible repercussions of catching her with he guard down. That glare isn't as menacing as she would like to think it is. Not with her eyes red from crying.

Alec takes a breath-- false bravado only supplied by the fact he suspects his future self is wiser in these things then him-- and hopefully wouldn't lead him down a path that would ruin their friendship. He senses something about Keira was important to the old man as well. The boy reaches again to set his hands on her shoulders, expression unguarded and awkward in youth as he eases himself to one knee before her. So he can level his blue eyes with her own.

"Hey," He says gently, as if that word along will impart everything he doesn't say. Her weak smile would have sent him to his knee's if he hadn't already been on them.

"What are you doing here, Alec." She questions, and he can see the pieces of her emotions sliding back behind that guard. She lifts a hand to harshly wipe away the tears on her cheeks. His time is limited, by the way those walls are rebuilding.

"I was worried about you." The genius spurts out, embarrassment licking at his cheeks. Yet he holds his ground. 

"Alec," She starts, and he can feel a lecture brewing behind her blue eyes. How much of a risk it is for him to be here. How she doesn't even want to know he got past security. He cuts her to the chase quickly.

"You looked like you could use a friend who wasn't just in your head-- I just..." He fumbles with his words-- and its endearing the way that smart mind of his fails to articulate what it desires. It causes her to smile, briefly, as if she isn't sure how this boy grows to become the most powerful man in their world. 

"Alec." Her tone is different, soft, and the stern look died. The change seems to encourage him, and he continued despite his embarrassment.

"I didn't want you to be alone." It feels lame on his part, almost cliche. But she seems to understand the sentiment behind it. As if something dawns in a revelation behind her eyes-- he watches as those beautiful blue's start to tear up again and a sense of panic drives through him. Someone really needs to write a handbook for women, Alec thinks belatedly. He has no idea how to handle this.

But as a soft "Thank you, Alec" Is voiced out, and Alec seems to know enough to pull her into a hug. Its tense at first, as if Kiera is uncertain of the touch. But after a moment her tension eases off, and he finds her weight resting against him as her tears soak their way into his hoodie. He tilts his head, and rests it against the brown locks of her hair as he strokes one hand along her back in what he hopes is a soothing motion.

All he will remember about being this close to her. The scent is a gentle lavender. Something generic. Likely from one of those cheap shampoo's from the market down the road. Yet that scent will linger with him for another sixty four years. To a moment when an old man looks out over the ocean from his floating palace, and the breeze carries with it a faint hint of the past. 

The elderly man closes his eyes against the memory, enjoying the vividness of it before turning from the evening sky and returning to his desk inside. Alec tosses a tired glance to the side of the table top-- where a frame is holding an old fashioned photograph of his wife. His smile curls his lips and the wrinkles only make his face that more endeared.

He turns his gaze towards the code on the monitor in front of him and finishes typing the files message.

_"If there is one thing, that's true,_  
It's not what I say, it's what I do.  
And I say too much, yeah, that's true,  
So just listen to what I do.  
A thousand years go by,  
But love don't die." 


End file.
